152 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



certain, then, that all our grapes, wild and cultivated, can be 

 reduced to four or five species. 



MORE IN REGARD TO THE ELEMENTS OF WINE AND WINE-MAKING. 



Let it be observed, that I have stated a general principle to 

 be always heeded in making all kinds of wines, whether from 

 the juices of the different varieties of grapes or fruits, viz.. Four 

 I)Ositive elements must be present in order to make good wine — 

 water, sugar, vivcilage and acid. These must exist in pretty 

 nearly definite proportions, say from twenty to twenty-five parts 

 of sugar, seventy-five parts of water, and five parts of acid, 

 mucilage, <fec. Our native grapes, both wild and cultivated, 

 contain a small amount of sugar, (wild grapes the least,) and 

 they also contain an excess of acid, (wild grapes the most.) 

 Producers of wine must study the character of the variety of 

 grapes they use in the* manufacture of wine. The juice of wild 

 grapes must be largely diluted with water, and treated to a 

 considerable addition of sugar, nearly equal to one hundred 

 per cent, of the former, and from twenty to twenty-five per 

 cent, of the latter. It will be necessary to add more or less 

 water to a certain amount of grape juice, according to the 

 amount of acid they must contain. • 



I have stated that other ingredients enter into the composition 

 of wine. I may as well speak of them here, before giving the 

 best methods of making wine in detail. First, a coloring 

 principle. This exists in the skins or peelings of grapes. 

 White wines are made by expressing the juice of grapes and 

 immediately putting it on ferment, without allowing it to stand 

 and digest the skins, and thereby absorb the coloring principle. 

 The opposite course is taken in the manufacture of all colored 

 wines. The pomace is allowed to stand until the rich colors, 

 purple and claret, contained in the grape-skins, are thoroughly 

 extracted and incorporated with the juice. So also, in the 

 second place, the odoriferous principle, or aroma, also contained 

 in the skins of grapes, is extracted in the same way by allowing 

 the skins to infuse for a season in the must before it is expressed 

 from the pomace. Third, tannin, or the astringent tonic prin- 

 ciple. This is contained in the stems and seeds of grapes. It 

 is that which gives to Port and some other foreign wines their 

 peculiar astringent taste and renders them valuable as medi- 



